Other than being known on this forum for fast vehicles and my infatuation with Kelly Shore, I was Director of Academic Computing at my university for five years and also chaired the Instructional Technology Committee--so I know a little something about computers as well?

Without debating the merits of a ?Mac? or ?PC? and also in an attempt to keep this post relatively short, my own view is that a ?computer is a computer.? Inside they all work alike--everything is in binary. From our perspective however, there are certain applications that you want to run and you buy the appropriate hardware and software to support them. In some cases, the Mac is the clear winner. Most of my colleagues in the liberal arts and sciences use them and love them--I have owned several Mac?s myself. On our campus, we have Mac?s in the Writing Center, the Education Lab, and in the Art Department. Many of the applications used (particularly in Art) can only be found for the Mac.

In the School of Business, where I reside as a faculty member, we have several PC labs. Business has historically used PC?s. The answer ?why? could be very long--to keep it short, suffice to say that IBM specifically targeted business starting way back in the 1960?s and 70?s with mainframes and ?data processing? applications (payroll, inventory, finance, etc.). That trend continued in the early 1980?s when IBM introduced the first PC (Homework Assignment: look up the ?IBM 360? and the ?1981 PC?). At that time, a young entrepreneur named Bill Gates had just won a contract from IBM to provide an ?operating system? for the PC. For whatever reasons, and there are many, businesses in general have been slow to adopt alternatives to the PC. For one, IBM?s customer support was legendary. A ?young upstart company? like Apple, was not likely to make inroads into this corporate market--however superior their product.

Individuals however, were free to make their own choices and many users in ?non business? fields gravitated to the Apple. Especially the Mac. With its user-friendly interface, stable OS, multitude of applications, and ease of networking it was a great choice. It also had, from the start, the aura of being ?cooler? than the PC and appealed to many for this reason (Homework Assignment: go to YouTube and find the ?1984? video that introduced the Mac during the Super Bowl). However the world of business stuck with the PC through the 80?s and 90?s. One possible reason that is often cited is that by the 1980?s, computers had become a ?commodity.? That is, it was essential to the bottom line to get the ?cheapest? technology and in the ?largest quantity.? Also, ?IT? support staffs knew the PC. With so much invested most businesses were not about to take a chance on something like a Mac.

As for the issue of stability? Any computer connected to the Internet can be a target. There are far more ?hackers? who have aimed their attacks at the PC than Mac. I am familiar with some of these groups--many consider themselves to be similar to ?freedom fighters? at war against the giant capitalist beast Microsoft. Sheer numbers alone, make the PC more vulnerable. There is also the issue of Operating System stability. From the beginning, Apple had a well designed ?OS? that was based on Unix. This is the ?core? of the Mac if you will. Apple also took a ?closed? approach to hardware and software development. Steve Jobs continues this trend today with the iPhone and iPad (Homework Assignment: read about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates or watch the movie ?Pirates of Silicon Valley"). IBM, with its choice of ?DOS? and on ?open? approach to developers may have committed the ?original sin? that has been perpetuated through countless versions of DOS and Windows. What was needed in my opinion, was a ?clean break? from Windows about 20 years ago. John Dowe is correct in saying that it is the ?OS? that is to blame for most of our trouble.

So which one is ?better?? That depends? and what?s more, you are all right! Speaking for myself, I almost have to rely on PC?s for what we do in the School of Business--most of the software won?t run on a Mac. Microsoft Office is available for the Mac but not Access. As far as the features, functionality, and stability, I prefer the Mac OS over Windows--no contest. In my life and career I have used SO MUCH technology that I really don?t give it much thought anymore. A few years ago, I used to be in charge of the entire ?IT? budget for our university--in my role, I would always let users decide what they wanted--so long as they could justify how it would be used for instruction. Over the years, other than for ?Business,? I have probably bought more Macs than anything else.